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Summer sorrel rolls

There’s a lovely plant nursery near veganbungalow, it’s really very hard not to buy too many flowering plants when you see them all lined up so beautiful and colourful!

But on a recent visit they had sorrel plants which just had to be bought. It’s actually years since I’ve had sorrel, but I love the lemony sharp flavour of the leaves so much that I’ve always meant to get a plant or two.

I wanted to make something that really celebrated the flavour of the leaves, but was struggling to come up with anything other than a potato based salad! Sorrel goes so beautifully with English summer flavours – peas, mint and nasturtium, and I really did want to make a dish that included them.

And then Alex hit on the idea of using the leaves as a wrap to make something somewhere between a Vietnamese crystal roll and dolmades. Inspired, I thought!

So I made them, and they’re really very good. I’m going to cosset my plants now and get some more nice big leaves so I can make them again! They’re a great way to use up leftover potato, and you could easily vary the herb and vegetable components, they’d be great with basil and roasted courgette mixed into the potato filling.

Sorrel summer rolls

serves 2 with salads and a nice dip

8 sorrel leaves preferably around 15 cm long but must be over 10 cm

100 g cooked new potatoes

20 g frozen peas, defrosted

1 tbsp shredded fresh mint leaves

a few chopped nasturtium leaves, optional but do add a nice peppery flavour

1 tsp good oil, I used cold pressed rapeseed

salt and pepper

Put the potatoes and peas in a bowl and roughly mash them. Not until smooth, but don’t leave any big lumps or they will tear the sorrel leaves.

Season liberally with salt and pepper, drizzle in the oil and add the herbs. Mix well.

Pour boiling water into a shallow bowl and holding it by the stem, dip a sorrel leaf in for a few seconds until it starts to soften.

Lay the leaf flat on a board and add a tbsp or so of potato mixture along the middle. Tuck in the end and then roll the leaf around the filling.

The leaves seem to naturally curl when they’re in the hot water, so I used that to decide which side to use for the filling. They didn’t all curl the same way!